Blood and Tears
by Generalmayhem02
Summary: A short one shot about the car crash that killed Ichigo and Rukia the year before Karin's execution , a side story from Death and a New Life. Warning, contains descriptions of fatal injuries caused by a car wreck, as well as descriptions of deaths. Also contains multiple character deaths. Ichirukia, Ishihime. I don't own Bleach, Kubo-sama does, I'm just borrowing it for a bit.


Ichigo was dying, he could feel the life draining from his body. The fog cleared from his head, and he took in his surroundings, the mangled wreckage of the van they were in. The front to the van seemed to have taken the worst of it, everything forward of the middle seat where he, Rukia, and Chad were sitting was a twisted mass of metal and glass. He could see the remains of his friends who were in the front, Uryu had been driving with his girlfriend Orihime riding shotgun, he knew they were both dead, no one could have survived the impact. Looking a little closer he could tell that Uryu had tried to use his body to protect Orihime, it was no use, they were dead.

Ichigo used what little strength he could muster to look in the back seat, Tatsuki and Keigo were back there, and being further from the impact, Ichigo hoped they had fared better. He could hear a faint sobbing sound coming from behind, and he saw Tatsuki cradling Keigo's head in her lap. At first Ichigo thought the impact had knocked Keigo out, but when he looked closer he could see a large piece of glass was lodged in his neck, and his eyes were open. Tatsuki was sobbing as she held her dead friend, and Ichigo saw that both of her legs were mangled in a mass of debris, blood pouring from her injuries. Ichigo knew from years of experience growing up in a clinic that she had only minutes left herself.

Ichigo tried to move from the spot he was pinned in, and managed to free himself, he could feel the blood pouring out of his wounds, he knew his time was growing short. He had to find Rukia , she had been setting between him and Chad on the middle bench seat. Ichigo looked up at the gentile giant who had been his closest friend since middle school, he too had died on impact. Chad had seen what was about to happen and moved between the front of the van and the middle seat where Ichigo and Rukia were sitting., in an attempt to shield them from the impact.

Ichigo had to find Rukia, it was his fault they were in this mess, he had been the one to suggest that they spend a weekend at the beach to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Winter War, but now his friends who had gone through a war with him were dead or dying and it was all his fault.

Ichigo looked around again and he heard a faint moaning sound coming from the floor, he moved some debris and saw a hand. He reached down and cleared the wreckage off of Rukia, she was still alive. Rukia lay pinned under the remains of the front seat, she had been run through by a long metal rod from the van's structure, and had a massive head wound, with blood running from the side of her head and pooling on the floor.

"Rukia, can you hear me?" Ichigo said, his voice strained and weak, as blood dripped from his mouth.

"Ich .. Ichigo?" Rukia whispered, her voice weak and confused.

"I'm here, I'm right here." He said, pushing through the pain and weakness overtaking him, he wanted to stay strong for her. One look at her injuries told him she was dying, and had very little time left. The way Rukia was pinned in, there was no way for her to get a soul candy, and she was too weak from blood loss to use her spiritual pressure to push out of her gigai. She was trapped in it as long as she remained "alive" and there was nothing she could do to change it.

"I'm scared." she said, her eyes unfocused.

"I know, I'm right here." He said.

"I can't see you, don't leave me." she said, her voice growing weaker.

'I won't , I'm not going anywhere." He said as his strength began waning, he knew he was near death.

Ichigo laid down next to Rukia, he took her in his arms as best he could, and interlocked his fingers with hers.

"Rukia, it's going to be OK, I'm right here." he said as he felt her body shutter.

"I I can't feel you, I I. can't feel you, I I.' Rukia whispered, as her body shuttered, and she started gasping quickly, after a few moments the gasping slowed and then her breathing stopped with a long wheeze.

Ichigo lay on the floor holding Rukia's body until he felt his own body convulse, strangely he didn't feel connected to his body as it finally died.

After his body died, Ichigo was able to get out of the wrecked van, it looked worse then he thought it would. He joined his friends who had gathered on the road next to the twisted wreckage that had been the van they had rented for the weekend, they watched as Tatsuki's soul emerged from the van. The EMTs and police arrived on the scene a few minutes later, there was nothing they could do except remove the tattered remains of those who had been in the van.

Rukia ran to Ichigo and wrapped her arms around his middle, she hugged him close, no words were spoken, and none were needed. Ichigo's thoughts turned to his sister Yuzu, she was going to be devastated, after what happened to her last year, and Karin's death sentence for killing that bastard who hurt Yuzu. Ichigo worried about Karin as well, she had a lot to deal with as it was, it had to be hard on her living under a death sentence, stuck in a prison cell away from her family. She also had the burden of knowing that her own impending death was going to be that much harder on her family now that he was dead.

Ichigo watched as the EMTs began removing their bodies from the wreckage, they decided that staying was a bad idea, hollows would be drawn in by the exposure of so many souls with high spirit energy, and even though Ichigo and Rukia could deal with it, they would still be putting the EMTs and any other innocent bystanders in danger.

Rukia opened a sankaimon, and she and Ichigo lead everyone through, Ichigo stopped at the gate, looking around. He knew he would miss his sisters, and even his crazy dad, but somehow he felt like he was going home, that he belonged in the Soul Society in a way he never did, or could in the Living World. Rukia walked up to him, she placed her hand in his, and smiled up at him.

"Ready?" she ask in a loving voice.

"Come on Midget, let's go home." He said with a smile, as they walked through the gate. He was done with his old life, now he was ready to start a new one.

_Six months later_

A young woman with shocking hot pink hair sat kneeling in front of a grave in Karakura cemetery, she sobbed lightly as she said her prayer for her friend. The six months since the crash that killed her beloved had done little to ease her pain. She had known that she could never have what she wanted, no her friend had feelings for another, and she had to be content to just be close and hope that her broken heart would mend. Sadly her heart was now shattered, and would never heal, to have her friend taken from her so suddenly was almost more then she could take. She finished her prayer and stood, as she was getting ready to leave she put her hand on the grave.

"Goodbye, my Hime." Said Chizuru Honshu, as she left the grave of her beloved, hoping that she had found peace, and maybe even love on the other side.

Someday I'll be ok, someday, she thought to herself as she walked away.


End file.
